Swedish officials say it could be a damaged Russian submarine sending encrypted signals
Photo - PONTUS LUNDAHL/TT
Officials denied they were “hunting submarine”, calling the mobilisation — one of the biggest since the Cold War — an “intelligence operation”.Russia denied on Sunday that any of its submarines were involved. “There have been no irregular situations and, even less so, accidents involving Russian naval vessels,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
But the respected Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet reported that a damaged Russian submarine was at the centre of the mystery.The report said that Swedish military intelligence had intercepted radio signals between an area off the coast of Stockholm and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad — home to much of Russia’s Baltic Sea naval fleet.“It was transmitted on a special frequency, used by Russia in emergency situations,” the newspaper wrote, citing Swedish military sources involved in the search.Sweden’s armed forces remained tight-lipped, but did say its focus was on “underwater activities”. “The Swedish Armed Forces are not in a position to deny or verify media news or speculations recently published about a missing foreign submarine,” spokesman Erik Lagersten said.
“At the moment we are conducting an intelligence operation in the archipelago of Stockholm with optical reconnaissance as well as with naval vessels equipped with qualified underwater sensors... to establish if there are or have been foreign underwater activities in the area.”
Anonymous military sources told Svenska Dagbladet that the emergency signal in Russian was intercepted on Thursday evening, and that further encrypted signals were sent on Friday after Swedish armed forces began combing the area.
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From swedish translation
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/english-version-could-be-a-damaged-russian-submarine_4023511.svd
A distress signal in Russian preceded the submarine alert in the archipelago of Stockholm. When the military search operation started radio communication between a transmitter in the archipelago and a transmitter in Kaliningrad was detected. This indicates that there could be a damaged russian submarine in Swedish waters.
Photo - PONTUS LUNDAHL/TT
Officials denied they were “hunting submarine”, calling the mobilisation — one of the biggest since the Cold War — an “intelligence operation”.Russia denied on Sunday that any of its submarines were involved. “There have been no irregular situations and, even less so, accidents involving Russian naval vessels,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
But the respected Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet reported that a damaged Russian submarine was at the centre of the mystery.The report said that Swedish military intelligence had intercepted radio signals between an area off the coast of Stockholm and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad — home to much of Russia’s Baltic Sea naval fleet.“It was transmitted on a special frequency, used by Russia in emergency situations,” the newspaper wrote, citing Swedish military sources involved in the search.Sweden’s armed forces remained tight-lipped, but did say its focus was on “underwater activities”. “The Swedish Armed Forces are not in a position to deny or verify media news or speculations recently published about a missing foreign submarine,” spokesman Erik Lagersten said.
“At the moment we are conducting an intelligence operation in the archipelago of Stockholm with optical reconnaissance as well as with naval vessels equipped with qualified underwater sensors... to establish if there are or have been foreign underwater activities in the area.”
Anonymous military sources told Svenska Dagbladet that the emergency signal in Russian was intercepted on Thursday evening, and that further encrypted signals were sent on Friday after Swedish armed forces began combing the area.
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From swedish translation
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/english-version-could-be-a-damaged-russian-submarine_4023511.svd
A distress signal in Russian preceded the submarine alert in the archipelago of Stockholm. When the military search operation started radio communication between a transmitter in the archipelago and a transmitter in Kaliningrad was detected. This indicates that there could be a damaged russian submarine in Swedish waters.
Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet can reveal sensational information about what happened before and during the ongoing military operation in the archipelago of Stockholm, where the military – in their own words – are searching for "suspected foreign activity under water".
In the official version the operation started due to the reports from a "credible source" that had seen a suspicious object on friday.
But what has not been revealed is that the National Defence Radio Establishment ("Försvarets radioanstalt", FRA) detected radio communication in Russian a day before the operation started. It was transmitted on a special frequence, used by Russia in emergency situations.
About 14 hours later, Friday the 17th october around noon, the underwater vehicle was detected and the search operation begun.
Friday night signal intelligence once again intercepted radio communication. This time it was encrypted but it was possible to determine the position of the transmitter and the reciever. The transmitter was situated somewhere in Kanholmsfjärden in the archipelago of Stockholm, and the reviever was situated in Kaliningrad, Russia.
This information has been confirmed by several persons with knowledge about the ongoing search operation, altough they can't confirm that there is a damaged submarine in Swedish waters.
– We are now focusing on determining if there is ongoing foreign underwater activity or not, one of the sources tells Svenska Dagladet.
The swedish military said Sunday – after a couple of days of almost complete silecence about the operation – that they now see it as "very likely" that foreign activity under water is taking place in the archipelago of Stockholm. On a press conference they said they have recieved three testimonys since Friday from eyewitnesses that have made similar observations of something showing at the surface in three different places in the archipelago.
They also showed a picture of the latest observation, taking place on Sunday, that shows a black object coming up from the water – altough far away from where the picture is taken.
At the same press conference the military rejected that they had recieved information about any emergency call in Russian. But they did not want to comment on the information about radio communication between Kanholmsfjärden and Kaliningrad.
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